The way marketing video is measured today is hampering our collective creativity. In the quest for impressive business value, we’re holding ourselves back from wonderful things. Many businesses are unknowingly looking at video through legacy lenses—and conflating metrics, KPIs and ROI as a result.

Think of each marketing video your business creates like a member of a soccer team. You measure the whole team’s performance based on goals scored and games won, but not every player is a striker. You wouldn’t measure your goalie’s performance on goals scored and declare them a waste of salary for not delivering—he or she serves a different, but equally valuable, role on the team.

The same exact thought process should be applied to video for business, and yet I hear the constant refrain “we want a viral video” in my sleep. Marketers know that mentality is wrong, yet many cannot divorce themselves from thinking that bigger numbers mean better results.

Stop and think about why we use video: It’s an emotional medium that allows us to say a lot, quickly. Done right it moves people and gets them to think differently. As such, video is a huge opportunity for any business, virality be damned.

So how can we bust out of the framework that so many companies use as they approach all videos as equals? Here are some ideas to put into practice to make better a business case for video.

First, I think basically everyone needs a quick refresh on what we’re talking about when we say metrics, KPIs, and ROI. Metrics are the things we can measure, items that a number gets put to. KPIs are ways which we define success holistically and ROI is attributable financial return. None of these things are like the other and when we misuse them it’s deeply problematic as we seek to make smarter and greater investments in video in the future.

Metrics in isolation are meaningless—the danger is when we think they mean something when looked at on their own. Yes, they tell us how a given marketing video is performing, but without context the same metrics can’t be applied to two different videos. Just having more metrics doesn’t make you smarter or your content better.

How did we get this way? I blame television. Thirty years ago, a brand ran a TV ad over a certain period of time, measured brand uplift from surveys, and tracked sales off the back of the campaign. Not to get too nostalgic, but those were the days when an impression was really an impression. We took this approach historically because it was literally the best we could do.

Fast forward to today where an impression is nothing more than a page load, showing that a computer processed some content, but not that a human has. I like to define a modern KPI for video as a “meaningful impression”—one that actively drives value and moves a viewer towards spending more at a company in the long-run. How does one measure a meaningful impression? It’s not always easy. Marketers need to measure a combination of two things: did the video elicit an emotional state change and did it lead to a minimally viable conversion (MVC) or the next smallest action a viewer could take engaging with your brand? An MVC could be anything from visiting another page, to watching another video, or even brand amplification, by sharing or liking the content itself.

I know what you’re thinking: how do you measure emotional state change? There’s no Facebook Insights or Google Analytics for emotion. There are, however, three really awesome solutions here (with three very different price points): Unruly ShareRank, Affectiva, and my personal favorite, Go to a bar/pub of your choice, and simply show your video to a stranger and ask what they think.

This shift in thinking—to prioritize a meaningful impression—requires two clear practices before you start producing a video. What feeling do you want to elicit (the creative side of the house)? And, what’s the smallest next positive action a viewer could take (the marketing side of the house)? If you know these two things going into any project, you can improve measurement of its performance and that will lead to better creative, and more targeted videos that will pay dividends for your business.

That brings us to the attributable financial return of video, or ROI. To be clear, ROI is a measure of “how much money did this video make us”, but does not track all business value. More effective ROI analysis leads to smarter creative investments. ROI is far more about future investment guidance than proving the value of the past, but that’s harder to practice than preach.

This is where the power of the CRM comes into play. Tethering your video viewer data to your CRM will enable your business to connect video views to sales, customer retention, and much more. The data flowing from your video to the CRM is viewer-specific, which means results aren’t being pooled in aggregate – you’ll learn about each individual’s unique relationship with that video, which is a powerful tool for any marketer.

The Content Marketing Institute said it best: more than half of B2B marketers in North America say that measuring the ROI of their content marketing programs is their biggest challenge. Video is your most powerful content marketing asset. As we move forward, it’s crucial that businesses agree on what measure internally and what determines success.

Phil Nottingham is a video strategist at Wistia.

Related Articles:

Video Velocity: Harnessing the Power of Video

Making a Better Business Case for Video

Video Helps Maine Lobsters Get Their Claws Into Restaurant Chefs

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–YuMe,
Inc., (NYSE: YUME), the global audience technology company powered
by data-driven insights and multi-screen expertise, today released its
Publisher’s Guide, which highlights consumer survey results focused on
understanding the relationship between video viewing habits and ad
receptivity. The guide was created to help publishers increase
monetization opportunities through consumer insights for successful
digital ad campaigns.

“Our research continues to show that a combination of behavioral,
contextual and psychographic factors play a decisive role in how
consumers view and respond to advertising,” said Stephanie Gaines, Vice
President, Corporate Marketing, YuMe. “We believe publishers can improve
effectiveness when they use consumer insights to match content and adapt
publishing practices to optimize ad receptivity and effectiveness.”

Key findings of the study include:

•

Consumers are Most Receptive to Ads in the Early Morning

While evenings are traditionally viewed as optimal due to the volume
of video viewership, early morning could be worth a higher premium
due to higher levels of receptivity to advertising and the
willingness to receive a message from a brand, with a level of 59 in
the morning versus 45 in the evening (on a scale of 1-100). Taking
advantage of the early morning peak in ad receptivity may result in
a more successful digital campaign.

•

Morning and Night Deliver Highest Purchase Intent Metrics

The time of day can drive ad performance. In the morning (3:00
AM-11:59 AM), purchase intent is highest at +11%, followed by the
night (9:00 PM-2:59 AM) at +5%, and trailed by the afternoon (12:00
PM-4:59 PM) and evening (5:00 PM-8:59 PM) at +4% each. Overall
favorability scores were also higher for the morning and night at
+17% and +8% respectively, compared to +3% in the afternoon and +4%
in the evening.

•

Consumers Prefer a Single Long Ad vs. Multiple Short Ads

When presented with choices for 30 seconds of ad time, consumers
showed a preference for one 30-second ad over a series of shorter
ads totaling the same length. The primary reason given was a desire
to minimize interruption of content.

•

One-Size-Fits-All Mobile Strategy Doesn’t Work Across Devices

Ad receptivity on tablets is higher than on smartphones in the
morning, though ad receptivity is higher on smartphones in the
evening.

•

Better Content Equals Better Brand Metrics

Respondents that rated the content as enjoyable also responded with
higher levels of favorability. Overall favorability ratings came in
at 60% if consumers enjoyed the content, as compared to 15% if they
did not enjoy the content.

“Our research shows that by understanding viewership behaviors, ad
receptivity and ad performance insights, publishers can build strategies
to better curate content at the right time across the right devices,”
said Paul Neto, Senior Research Director, YuMe. “Based on these consumer
insights, publishers can and should take advantage of new monetization
opportunities, particularly as it relates to placing a premium on early
mornings where digital ad receptivity is highest.”

Over 10,000 respondents participated in YuMe’s two-part study; the first
examined video consumption habits and ad receptivity, and the second
measured ad effectiveness.

For more information and to download the full report visit, http://www.yume.com/insights/video-advertising-research.

About YuMe

YuMe, Inc. (NYSE: YUME) is a leading provider of global audience
technologies, curating relationships between brand advertisers and
consumers of premium video content across a growing range of connected
devices. Combining data-driven technologies with deep insight into
audience behavior, YuMe offers brand advertisers end-to-end marketing
software that establishes greater brand resonance with engaged
consumers. YuMe is headquartered in Redwood City, California, with
worldwide offices. For more information, visit www.YuMe.com/pr,
follow @YuMevideo
and like YuMe
on Facebook.

Forward-Looking Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including those
in management quotations. In some cases, you can identify
forward-looking statements by the words « may, » « will, » « expect, »
« intend, » « plan, » « objective, » « anticipate, » « believe, » « estimate, »
« predict, » « project, » « potential, » « continue » and « ongoing, » or the
negative of these terms, or other comparable terminology intended to
identify statements about the future. All statements other than
statements of historical fact are statements that could be
forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements
about this study and its impacts, industry terminology such as
receptivity and favorability, the impact and value of cross-screen
advertising, and the benefits derived therefrom; growth strategies;
operating results; market trends; and quotations from management. These
forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties,
assumptions and other factors that could cause actual results and the
timing of events to differ materially from future results that are
expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Factors that
could cause or contribute to such differences include YuMe’s history of
net losses and limited operating history, which make it difficult to
evaluate prospects, YuMe’s fluctuating quarterly results of operations,
and dependence on a limited number of customers in a highly competitive
industry. These and other risk factors are discussed under « Risk
Factors » in YuMe’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended
June 30, 2016 that has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission (the « SEC »), and in our future filings and reports with the
SEC. The forward-looking statements in this press release are based on
information available to YuMe as of the date hereof, and we assume no
obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Specifications that Have Broken Away from the HTML5 Core

As the Internet has grown into what it is today, the HTML specification has grown with it. As far back as 2008, there was discussion about breaking it up into separate specs. An email by Ian Hickson draws attention to where the W3C was at that time. In it, he suggests a few sections to take out of the Core spec, including the 2D Canvas, 3D Canvas, Stylesheet API, Interaction events, as well as HTML5 Rendering and UA behavior.

Despite the effort spent on splitting up the HTML spec, the W3C didn’t make any major changes until HTML5. Some of these changes were outlined in the The HTML5 Spec: What’s In and What’s Out? article. Today’s follow-up will attempt to demystify the dozens of periphery working groups that produce specs that are not part of the core HTML5 Spec.

How to Tell if an API is Part of the Core Spec

Here’s a riddle: How do you know whether a spec is part of the HTML5 Core or not?

Give up?

RTFM

Or in this case, read the spec. Though it might sound like an egregious oversimplification: if it’s in the spec, it’s part of the standard; if it isn’t, it’s a separate spec.

With that rule of thumb in mind, the W3C’s most recent recommendation for HTML5 is posted on their site for all to see. That spec defines the 5th major revision of the core Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). It includes new features that were introduced to help Web application authors, new document elements, as well as conformance guidelines for browser vendors that may lead to improved interoperability.

If you like a good picture as much as I do, then you’re going to love this graphic that I came across on the Repository of all worldly knowledge, Wikipedia:

Click the image to see a larger version.

The above image clearly delineates the initial W3C HTML5 and WHATWG HTML specifications, the official W3C HTML5 specification, and HTML5 related technologies.

It is very telling because we can see that the Core HTML5 spec came to include much more that HTML Markup, including APIs for Canvas, Drag-and-drop, Web Messaging, and others. That being said, a search for « drag and drop » in the W3c spec will hit in working drafts, but will come up empty in the latest version. While the W3C decided to not include the Drag Drop API in their spec, the WHATWG did. That’s why the label for the innermost circle of the diagram is « WHATWG HTML Specification ». The Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) is a competing organization that also produces specifications for the Web. Just like the W3C, the WHATWG focuses on the development of HTML and APIs for Web applications.

The WHATWG was founded by individuals of Apple, the Mozilla Foundation, and Opera Software in 2004, after a W3C workshop. Apple, Mozilla and Opera did not agree with the W3C’s direction in a few areas, including HTML, XHTML, and felt that the group has started to disregard the needs of HTML authors. So, in the spirit of the open market, these organizations created their own community.

Both groups’ specifications tend to be very similar but, over time, more and more differences are cropping up. One of the most striking differences is the naming of the standard. The WHATWG version of the specification was renamed into « HTML living standard » with reference to the constantly evolving nature of the spec. Meanwhile, the W3C’s specifications still use version numbers and is now working the next version of their standard known as HTML5.1.

Browser vendors must choose whether to support both standards or follow one over the other. For instance, when the W3C’s and WHATWG’s HTML specifications differ, Mozilla tends to follow the WHATWG one.

Periphery APIs

The outer ring of the HTML5 related APIs diagram is labeled « HTML5 related technologies » and includes APIs that are external to the HTML5 Core spec. Some of these are maintained by the W3C, while others – JavaScript and WebGL – are the domain of other organizations. JavaScript specs are produced by Ecma International. Hence JavaScript’s alternative ECMAScript moniker. The WebGL Working Group was started by the non-profit technology consortium Khronos Group. in 2009 with initial participation from Apple, Google, Mozilla, Opera, and others.

The remaining peripheral specifications are drafted by members of the W3C within various working groups. Here are a few examples:

• Geolocation: the Geolocation Working Group is tasked by the W3C to define a secure and privacy-sensitive interface for using client-side location information in location-aware Web applications. The group meets regularly by phone and has two to three Face-to-Face meetings per year.
• File API: Currently in the last call stage of development, the latest spec was published by the Web Applications Working Group on April 21, 2015. This group is chartered to develop specifications for web apps, including standard APIs for client-side development, and a packaging format for installable web apps. Their work includes both documenting existing APIs such as XMLHttpRequest and developing new APIs in order to enable richer web applications.
• Cascading Style Sheets: The CSS Working Group is responsible for both for the CSS specifications and for their conformance test suites. Their roadmap is maintained on the W3C website.

A full listing of the W3C Groups can be found on this W3C page.

Conclusion

With the current volume of APIs supported by modern browsers, it only makes sense to divvy them up into separate working groups. The only drawback is that it can be difficult for web developers to track down the relevant spec for a given technology. As summarized in this article, perhaps the best approach would be to first refer to the Core HTML5 spec. Then, if the API you are looking for is not contained therein, consult the W3C’s list of working groups. Finally, perform a web search for external working groups. That will almost certainly lead you to what you seek.

Rob Gravelle resides in Ottawa, Canada, and is the founder of GravelleWebDesign.com. Rob has built web applications for numerous businesses and has recently developed his own jquery-tables library.

Rob’s alter-ego, « Blackjacques », is an accomplished guitar player, that has released several CDs. His band, Ivory Knight, was rated as one of Canada’s top hard rock and metal groups by Brave Words magazine (issue #92) and reached the #1 spot in the National Heavy Metal charts on ReverbNation.com.

In my previous post I took a look at the online video metrics that really matter for media companies, and video publishers and creators. But different industry sectors have different performance goals so let’s focus on the KPIs that B2B, and B2C brands and marketers should be taking into consideration when it comes to their digital video strategies. And with influencer marketing becoming a vital part of the mix, what metrics matter when it comes to that very special blend of earned and owned media?

Video Metrics: B2C and B2B Marketers

Before we tackle the metrics that matter to B2C and B2B marketers, we need to address why online video hasn’t really mattered to a significant portion of this segment. And this isn’t because they haven’t tried using videos or YouTube.

According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), 82% of B2C marketers use videos as a content marketing tactic and 82% use YouTube as a social media platform. But only 59% of B2C marketers rate videos as an effective tactic and just 53% rate YouTube as an effective platform. CMI also says that 79% of B2B marketers use videos as a content marketing tactic and 74% use YouTube as a social media platform. But only 62% rate videos as an effective tactic and just 51% rate YouTube as an effective platform.

Now, I realize that I’m looking at the 40% to 50% of the glass that’s empty, instead of the 50% to 60% that’s full. But this group represents one of the last remaining growth areas for the industry. And metrics really matter to B2C and B2B marketers just like they matter to the other two segments that we’ve already covered. However, a very different set of metrics matter.

B2C and B2B marketers – especially the inbound marketers at small and mid-sized businesses – see their websites as the center of their solar system. Yes, they know that YouTube, Facebook, and other video platforms are “out there.” But, they think of these as moons that are orbiting their websites – and some even see video taking precious marketing resources away from other inbound tactics that could drive more website traffic, generate better leads, and increase sales.

Why would they have such a website-centric view of the online video world? Well, their key metrics don’t come from YouTube Analytics or Google AdWords. Their key metrics generally come from Google Analytics (or from one of a handful of other web analytics services). Now, they probably know the “Will It Blend?” success story, which explains how a series of YouTube videos delivered a 700% increase in sales to Blendtec, a division of K-TEC. The ‘Will it Blend’ channel uploaded its first video 9 years ago, and its last one just days ago. Don’t fix what ain’t broken, right? (unless it’s this iPhone 7):

And, many marketers will also have read the Rokenbok case study, which tells the story of how YouTube became the number one source of traffic to the toy company’s website in just three years. Hey, more than four out of five B2C marketers and close to three out of four B2B marketers have a YouTube channel. So, they know that some of their competitors and peers have used video and YouTube effectively. But, far too many inbound marketers at small and mid-sized businesses look at their Google Analytics acquisition overview and see that the number of sessions and conversions generated by Social is small. And if they drill down into social, far too many will discover that the number of sessions and conversions generated by YouTube is minuscule.

YouTube.com is the second largest site on the web, behind only Google.com. So, why does it appear that so few of YouTube’s visitors go to a channel owner’s website next? Because, the only things that Google Analytics is tracking are the people who’ve clicked on a link in a video’s description or on an associated website card. It doesn’t track the people who visit your YouTube channel today and then visit your website 30 to 90 days later. So, go ahead, try explaining that to your executives or clients. And, then try to justify why they should give you a bigger share of the marketing budget to release video content frequently on a recurring schedule and maintain activity on their YouTube channel despite the fact that it will be hard to track the direct impact of these efforts on website traffic, leads, or sales. This is the elephant in the room. So, what metrics would make online video matter to this segment?

Awareness: Let’s start where B2C and B2B marketers start: Google Analytics. How come inbound marketers at small and mid-sized businesses can’t see the data in YouTube Analytics somewhere, somehow in Google Analytics? Wait, let me amend that question. TrueView joined Search, Display, and Shopping campaigns within the core AdWords interface in September 2015. So, they can now drill down to see acquisition, behavior, and conversion data for each AdWords campaign, including the ones on YouTube. But, they still need to jump back and forth between YouTube Analytics and Google Analytics to get a picture of their organic results.

This isn’t a rhetorical question. Google’s Universal Analytics debuted in April 2014. It introduced a set of features that changed the way data was collected and organized in Google Analytics, so B2C and B2B marketers could get a better understanding of how users interact with their online content across desktops, smartphones, and tablets. So, why isn’t there a way to roll out the User ID feature to help inbound marketers at small and mid-sized businesses get a better understanding of how users interact with their online content across YouTube and websites? Now, this would be an online video metric that really matters.

Attitude: It’s also worth noting that Google Analytics is good at telling you “what” people did on your website. But, it doesn’t tell you “why” they did it. Fortunately, Google Consumer Surveys enable website owners to add customer surveys to their sites in order to measure attitudes.

Here’s how they work. You can place a free satisfaction survey directly on your website so you can get feedback right when it’s top of mind. And Google Consumer Surveys has created four questions that are ready for you to use. You give them your URL and create your survey, and they’ll give you the code to paste into your site. And, while these default questions are free, you can add customized questions for just $0.01 per response or $5.00 for 500 responses. So, inbound marketers at small and mid-sized businesses can add a question like, “How did you hear about us?” Then, among the possible answers, they could include “a video” or “YouTube.” Hey, for $5.00, wouldn’t you want to see the answers to that question from recent visitors to you website? Wouldn’t this also become an online video metric that really matters to this segment?

Behavior: CMI’s research recently asked B2C marketers, “What is THE MOST important metric that your organization uses?” The answers were: sales (30%), sales lead quality (13%), brand lift (12%), higher conversion rates (11%), website traffic (8%), data capture (5%), and other (21%). When CMI asked B2B marketers the same question, the answers were: sales lead quality (31%), sales (23%), higher conversion rates (9%), sales lead quantity (7%), brand lift (6%), website traffic (5%), subscriber growth (3%), SEO ranking (3%), and other (13%).

So, these behaviors are important bucket of metrics for this segment. This is why inbound marketers at small and mid-sized businesses are focused on Google Analytics. But, what’s the measurable impact of adding a YouTube video or playlist on your website by embedding it? Does a session last longer? If it does, then what goal value would you give that behavior? And, if someone watches an embedded YouTube video on your website and then clicks on one of your associated website cards, riddle me this: Will it take them right back to the page where your video is embedded or, since they’re already on that page, to some other page farther down the sales funnel? It doesn’t seem like the YouTube player was designed with this in mind.

Fortunately, there’s an alternative. And I wrote about it last year in a column entitled, “How GoPro and Ulta Beauty Get Video Embedding Right.” As I said back then, video marketers might want to add different calls to action (CTAs) to the same YouTube video or playlist in different places. On YouTube, you might ask viewers to like or share your video, add comments, watch more of your videos, or subscribe to your channel. On your website, you might ask customers to sign up for your newsletter, fill out a form to receive more information, or purchase your product.

So, how do you do this? Well, a few websites have started to brand-wrap their YouTube videos with other players. For example, the GoPro Channel – the one on its website, not the one on YouTube – uses a custom playlist and player. There are other options from JW Player, the largest independent video player in the world and the third largest overall behind YouTube and Facebook and Wistia, a commercial service for hosting and sharing videos online. Wrapping YouTube videos with other players can provide B2C and B2B marketers with online video metrics about website behavior that really matter.

Video Metrics: For Influencer Marketers

Awareness: In addition to writing for Tubular Insights, I’m also an instructor in the Rutgers Business School Executive Education (RBSEE) program. And I teach a module in the Mini-MBA certificate program on Social Media Marketing entitled, “Engaging influencers through social media.” And the first thing that I teach participants is how to identify the right influencers for their business.

And I tell the executives in my class that the right influencers should combine:

• Reach: This is a measure of total audience size. Things like the number of YouTube subscribers go into this metric.
• Resonance: This is a measure of how much activity someone creates when they publish and the level of interaction with this person’s content. Things like engagements are good measures of someone’s resonance.
• Relevance: This is a measure of how relevant someone is to a topic and how much they talk about it. Relevance includes how often someone creates videos that use keywords; the recency of their keyword usage (more recent videos are weighed more heavily); the diversity of the keywords used by an influencer; and the placement of keywords (title vs. description).

These are the online video metrics that really matter for influencer discovery.

Attitude: But, you need a different set of metrics to measure the impact of your influencer marketing campaign on customer attitudes. Why? Because influencer engagement isn’t just a two-way relationship where both parties need to see the value for it to work. A successful influencer marketing campaign also needs to have a measurable impact on the people who trust these influencers.

Fortunately, there is a second set of metrics for this – and I wrote about them back in March in a column entitled, “Do You Really Know the Impact of Social Video on Your Brand?” As I said back then, the credit for developing these metrics belongs to Avinash Kaushik, the Digital Marketing Evangelist for Google. These metrics are:

• Conversation Rate, the ratio of comments per video to overall followers. Is what you are saying interesting enough to spark the most social of all things: a conversation?
• Amplification Rate, the ratio of shares per video to overall followers. Is what you are saying so incredible and of value that viewers will forward it to everyone they know?
• Applause Rate, the ratio of favorites per video to overall followers. Do viewers think the content you’ve posted is interesting, even if they won’t comment on it or forward it on?

Conversation, Amplification, and Applause rates will help you to measure the real active engagement of users with your influencer marketing campaign. And they provide the bucket of metrics that matter in the middle of this process.

Behavior: But, influencer marketing agencies and teams are increasingly being asked to connect their social media marketing metrics to business outcomes. And that means they need to connect what they’ve accomplished in YouTube, Facebook, and other social media with Google Analytics, so they can calculate the economic value of an influencer marketing campaign.

How do you do that – especially when your business or client already has active YouTube marketing and Facebook marketing campaigns that don’t involve influencers? Well, there’s more than one way to skin that cat, but here how I solve this problem. I use the Google Analytics Campaign URL Builder to easily add campaign parameters to URLs so I can track Custom Campaigns in Google Analytics. By adding campaign parameters to your URLs, you can identify the campaigns that send traffic to your site. When a user clicks a referral link, these parameters are sent to Analytics, so you can see the effectiveness of each campaign in your reports. Then, I use Bitly or the Google URL Shortener at goo.gl to take a long URL with three or more parameters and squeeze it into fewer characters to make a link that is easier to share, tweet, or email to friends. These short links are also more suitable for the description, annotations and cards, or end screen in an influencer’s video.

Then, the results of an influencer marketing campaign don’t get blended or buried somewhere in your Google Analytics Reports. You simply click on Campaigns (or Other) and drill down to see data on Acquisition, Behavior, and Conversions from each influencer marketing campaign.

I realize this appears a little “kludgy,” but it recently enabled me to report some interesting results to RBSEE for a modest, pro-bono campaign (which would have cost $2,323) to promote the launch of an accelerated certificate program that would explore the impact of the Internet of Things (IoT) on the next generation of supply chain strategy.  I was able to report that the video we had created to promote the program had received 1,715 views. That isn’t particularly impressive, is it? I also reported that the video and some outreach had helped us to engage two influencers, one a blogger and the other a reporter. Hey, for a geeky topic like this, that’s not especially surprising, is it? And by using the Google Analytics Campaign URL Builder, I was able to report that our campaign had generated 102 sessions on RBSEE’s website from 70 new users, who spent an average of 2:25 on the site looking at an average of 2.44 pages per session. Okay, that doesn’t sound remarkably amazing, does it? But, here are the results that totally astound my client. Our modest campaign generated six registrations at $4,995 per student for $29,970 in incremental revenue. That’s a short-term return on marketing investment (ROMI) of 12.9X. And this explains why our campaign has been shortlisted for one of the US Search Awards, which will be announced next month.

That’s what I mean by connecting social media marketing metrics to business outcomes. And that’s how you can connect what you’ve accomplished in YouTube, Facebook, and other video platforms with Google Analytics, so you can calculate the economic value of an influencer marketing campaign. And, yes, this is a very different set of metrics than other segments should use. But, they really matter, too.